Devil May Cry 5's microtransactions designed as an 'option...to save time'

Devil May Cry 5 will include microtransactions that players can choose to spend money in exchange for orbs initially obtained through combat or exploration, if they wish to speed up the upgrade process and add buffs to characters earlier than normal.

As GameSpot reports, microtransactions aren't a new concept for the Devil May Cry franchise (they were featured in Devil May Cry 4's special edition), but director Hideaki Itsuno provides his reasoning for implementing this system into the upcoming Capcom title.

"With giving people the ability to purchase Red Orbs, it’s something we want to give people as an option. If they want to save time and just want to get all the stuff at once, those people can do that," Itsuno explains.

"But on the other hand I don’t feel you have to get all the moves. You should be able to play it the way you want to play it."

His explanation sounds familiar, but he goes on to add how the inclusion of this type of microtransaction serves a design purpose as well. After all, it's important in an action game like Devil May Cry 5 to give players the incentive to gradually unlock and learn new abilities to develop skills. What happens to the natural progression if player's can just bypass the curve with cash?

"It’s interesting because from a game design point of view there’s two different things we think about when we set the prices of the moves, skills, and abilities [which can be purchased with Red Orbs]," he adds.

"The first thing is the stuff that we feel people should want to get first is made cheaper. So people will think, ‘Oh this is cheap so I’m just going to buy this.’ But then for the stuff that’s going to be harder to use and master, we make that more expensive."

"Partly because of you save up for that you’re not going to be able to buy as many skills, so you’re going to have the time to learn it. So you have to make the decision between going for the cheaper stuff or saving up, getting the thing that has a lot of application but you’ll have to spend time learning and perfecting."